ASBK 2015 Round Two Morgan Park Raceway
Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance Superbike and Supersport QP1Â Report
By Trevor Hedge
Mike Jones got straight down to business this morning as the first Superbike qualifying session got underway from 1145 at Morgan Park. His first flying lap a 1m16.4 before then sneaking under his own lap record with a 1m16.134 on his Pirelli shod ZX-10R.
Superbike debutant Daniel Falzon, riding a virtually fresh out of the box YZF-R1 as there is still a significant dirth of go-fast bits for Yamaha’s new Superbike, lopped a full second off his Friday time.
Another rider to improve by a second was Phil Lovett. The veteran Cessnock rider, also running Dunlops tyres, got down to 1m18.304 to claim the final spot on the front row.
James Mutton knocked almost 1.5-seconds from his previous best as he gets to grips with what is essentially a stock Ducati 1199 Panigale shod with Bridgestone rubber.
New Zealand’s Ryan Hampton was fifth quickest on the NextGen BMW HP4 ahead of Ben Henry (ZX-10R), Chas Hern (EBR) and Joseph Salter (Suzuki).
The lack of depth in the ASBK field clearly underlined here this morning with a full-second between first and second, and yet another second back to Lovett in third. And this on a relatively short track, albeit one that provisional pole-sitter Mike Jones is intimately associated with. The Queenslander, despite his still relatively young 21-years, a veteran of the Morgan Park circuit.
To be fair to Falzon, he is on a new, comparatively unprepared bike and has only a fraction of the circuit knowledge that Jones possesses around the three-kilometre circuit. Thus the recently turned 21-year-old is fairly satisfied to be within 1.2-seconds of Jones here this weekend.
But without Team Honda, and Team Yamaha, and their, arguably, fastest six riders in the country, this weekend resembles more of a club day than a national championship event. And that’s not to take anything away from Jones, the Kawasaki rider would be a serioust threat around Morgan Park against any level of competition. The Queenslander regularly runs towards the front in the rival Swann Australasian FX Superbike Championship, and won a race in the FX Superbike season finale at Sydney Motorsports Park last November.
When we spoke to Jones he was unsure as to what other rounds of the ASBK series he might contest, as his focus is on the FX Superbike series. Conversely, Daniel Falzon is focussing on the ASBK Championship in what is his debut year on the big-bore machinery. Falzon mentioned that he might, perhaps, test his mettle in the rival competition when the FX Series heads to his homestate of South Australia in five weeks time. Which is just before the ASBK Series heads across the Nullarbor to Wanneroo Raceway the following weekend, May 22-24. Two series, criss-crossing each other around the country, far from ideal isn’t it…?
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Superbike QP1
- Mike Jones 1m16.134
- Daniel Falzon 1m17.341
- Phil Lovett 1m18.304
- James Mutton 1m18.910
- Ryan Hampton 1m19.344
- Ben Henry 1m19.586
- Chas Hern 1m19.703
- Joesph Salter 1m20.345
- Adam Senior 1m20.618
- Phil Czaj 1m20.913
- Ashley Fleming 1m20.945
- Andy Fisher 1m21.590
- Nick Marsh 1m23.541
- Tony Keogh 1m24.275
- Ben Scott 1m26.219
- Stephen Benjak
Supersport
Brayden Elliott is clearly benefitting from the presence of three-time Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles and master Suzuki tuner Phil Tainton here at Morgan Park this weekend. The presence of both Suzuki stalwarts in his corner strengthening the resolve and performance of the Tumut based 20-year-old to push his Dunlop shod Suzuki GSX-R600 to provisional pole this morning, enjoying half-a-second lead over fellow Suzuki rider Kane Burns.
Local Kawasaki rider Troy Guenther continued his good form to finish the session third quickest ahead of Friday pacesetter Chris Quinn.  Darwin based Triumph rider Sam Lambert punted his beautifully painted 675R to fifth fastest ahead of Perth’s Thyron Van Vuuren.
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Supersport QP1
- Brayden Elliott 1m17.351
- Kane Burns 1m17.904
- Troy Guenther 1m18.139
- Chris Quinn 1m18.140
- Sam Lambert 1m18.642
- Thyron Van Vuuren 1m18.661
- Brenton Hyde 1m18.889
- Alex Phillis 1m18.950
- Nicholas Liminton 1m18.978
- Anthony Quinn 1m19.732
- Aaiden Coote 1m20.053
- James Parker 1m20.400
- Harrison Cox 1m20.814
- Cam Russell 1m21.476
- Steven Haslam 1m22.511
- Chris McMillan 1m23.439
- Mark Chiodo 1m23.661
- Cameron Webster 1m25.306
- Shane Irwin 1m25.356
Moto 3 / 125 GP QP2
- Callum Barker 1m21.772
- Ben Leonard 1m22.068
- Matt Barton 1m22.189
- Brian Houghton 1m22.660
- Locky Taylor 1m23.382
- Tayla Relph 1m23.509
- Tom Bramich 1m24.794
- Ted Collins 1m24.942
- Clint Clarke 1m25.532
Production – All riders on Ninja 300 apart from Craig White who is on a 250
- Drew Sells 1m31.999
- Michelle Marais 1m32..209
- Justin Hall 1m32.966
- Hayden Spinks 1m33.458
- Lilish Ross 1m34.985
- Josh McHenry 1m35.025
- Chris Greene 1m35.639
- Aaron Linham 1m36.398
- Melanie Crockford 1m38.112
- Craig White 1m39.375
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Qualifying this afternoon and includes a Pirelli Superbike Superpole session slated for 1520.  Pirelli is sponsoring the Superpole session with a new Pirelli Superpole awards program which features separate awards for the fastest qualifiers in the Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance Superbike and Yamaha Supersport classes. The fastest qualifiers in each class win a free set of Pirelli Tyres on offer as the prize.
All categories apart from the premier Superbike and Supersport also have their first race on Saturday afternoon.
The ASBK Sunday schedule starts with the 250/300 Production category race two at 0930 with the first Superbike bout set down for 1135.
ASBK Ticket Prices: Adults: $20 – Concession: $10 – Under 15: Free
2-day passes: Adults: $30 – Concession: $15 – Under 15: Free
Spectators can also win the ride of a lifetime on the back of a Superbike piloted by an Australian Champion! Â Click Here for more.
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